


date night

by estrella30



Category: One Direction, Radio 1 RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-10
Updated: 2012-11-10
Packaged: 2017-11-18 08:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estrella30/pseuds/estrella30
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based on the prompt:</p><p>I want fic where Nick has a date. In order to impress said date, he goes out and buys a cookbook and fresh ingredients (even though he can't cook) and spends all day practicing making a meal. So, that night he makes the meal for his date, but the dude stands him up. He's about to crack open the bottle of expensive wine he bought to go with dinner and and drink it all alone, but then Harry texts him and asks him what he's up to. He tells Harry he's just been stood up, tries to make a joke out of it, but twenty minutes later Harry shows up at his door and they eat Nick's food and drink the wine together and it's the best date Nick has ever been stood up for. And then there are makeouts. The end. </p><p>which is KIND of that but not totally? but it's close :D</p>
            </blockquote>





	date night

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to rivers_bend for the beta and britpick! any remaining mistakes are my own.

The idea of cooking for his blind date isn’t the worst idea Nick’s ever had, even if Harry is acting like a complete mental patient about it.

“I just don’t understand why,” Harry complains from where he’s sat on Nick’s countertop, his feet banging rhythmically against Nick’s cabinets. Nick pauses long enough from making his shopping list to glare at Harry, who shrugs sheepishly, but thankfully the banging stops. “You should just meet him at a café for dinner like any normal person would. Having him come to yours for you to cook for him is stupid.”

“Not stupid,” Nick corrects, “ _Romantic _.”__

__“ _Stupid_ ,” Harry grouses again. Nick secretly delights in seeing Harry like this, all frowny faced and disgruntled like a puppy who's had his favorite chew toy taken away. He’s got his arms crossed, and he pouts harder every time Nick opens a cabinet or the refrigerator and scratches another item down on his list. It’s charming, really._ _

__“You’re just jealous no one’s ever made a home cooked meal for you on a first date, Harold,” Nick teases, and from Harry’s lack of response he thinks he may be on to something. “Don’t worry, love. I’m sure there’s a fit young pre-teen out there who’s studying up right now on the way to win your heart through your popstar stomach.”_ _

__Harry takes a handful of grapes from Nick’s fruit bowl and tosses them at his head, but Nick ducks just in time, and instead of hitting them they scatter all around his kitchen floor._ _

__The funny thing is normally Nick would agree with Harry. Cooking on a first date – and a blind date no less – is a foolishly stupid idea. There are any number of things that could go wrong, from Nick burning his flat to the ground while trying to make a basic risotto, to the bloke showing up with spinach in his teeth or breath like the back end of a barn. Or even worse, he could be _unattractive_. Nick shudders at the thought._ _

__But he’s a friend of Pixie’s friend from work and Pixie says she met him once or twice and he seems nice enough and fit and friendly (though Nick suspects Pixie thinks everyone is fit and friendly after she has a few cocktails at work events and really, maybe Nick should have thought this through a little better.) He didn’t, though, and when Pixie told him she’d set up the date, Nick told her to send the bloke his address because he’d make him some dinner and they’d go from there._ _

__Pixie had seemed delighted at the idea._ _

__Harry had nearly foamed at the mouth._ _

__“I just think it’s stupid,” Harry says for possibly the thousandth time this hour._ _

__“Yes, you’ve made your opinions abundantly clear, love,” Nick says slowly. He jots down a few more things he thinks he’ll need from the shop and then flips the notepad closed and grins at Harry’s disapproving face. “Now are you going to come shopping with me and help me figure out how to make a nice chicken dinner or am I going to have to do it myself?”_ _

__*_ _

__Harry goes, because of course he does, and after they get into the store and Nick lets Harry push the trolley, things ease up between them. Nick has a fancy recipe he’d looked up in a cookbook his mum had given him as a joke when he first moved from home – something with vegetables rolled in chicken and then surrounded in a dough and baked in the oven - but Harry huffs and tosses Nick’s shopping list in the trolley and starts plucking things off the shelves himself._ _

__“Don’t look like you’re trying so hard, Nick, really,” he mutters darkly. “Baked chicken rolled in pastry dough. Give me a break. I still don’t understand why you don’t just order a takeaway and put it on plates and throw the containers in the bin. It’s what any normal person would do,” he explains. “Toss a bit of flour around, let the hob run for a few minutes so it seems like you’ve been cooking and there you go. No stress, no potential for fires.”_ _

__“Because that’s not—“_ _

__“Romantic, I know,” Harry interrupts. Nick strolls along behind him, watching as Harry’s feet shuffle along the floor, his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he specifically chooses six perfect red peppers. “I’ll help you do a fast stir fry, yeah?” Harry says. He looks over at Nick and his eyes are wide and green and hopeful. He’s apparently shifted from negative nancy to mother hen in a split second, and Nick reaches out without thinking and pats Harry on the back, letting his fingers curl around Harry’s shoulder and give him a small squeeze._ _

__“That’d be great, Harry, thanks,” Nick says._ _

__*_ _

__They finish shopping with minimal fuss (well, minimal for the two of them. They of course get into a small food fight in the fruit and vegetable aisle, but that’s to be expected whenever Harry’s got his cheek on and there are things available for Nick to throw at his head) and then they’re back at Nick’s flat and Harry’s helping unpack the bags and instructing Nick on how to do everything, from heating the wok to cooking the rice and pouring the wine, it seems like. Nick lets him go on for a few minutes and then bodily walks him to the door as he’s still shouting out about blanching vegetables and how to make a nice stir fry sauce._ _

__“Harry,” Nick tells him calmly. “You need to relax.”_ _

__“I am relaxed! I’m fine!” Harry insists. The wild look in his eyes says different but Nick is too much of a gentleman to point that out. “I’m just worried about your dinner. And, you know, your flat,” he adds with a grin._ _

__“Piss _off_ ,” Nick says and shoves him out into the hall. “I’ve got food and a cookbook and half a brain, young Harold. I’m sure I can manage this.”_ _

__“It’s just – it’s easy to undercook chicken,” Harry says. His curls are flying around and his eyes are wide. He flaps his hands and tries to duck under Nick’s arm and get back into the flat. “You should let me do it. I’ll make sure you don’t die.”_ _

__“ _Goodbye, Harry_ ,” Nick says, and starts to close the door in his face. “I’m fine and we will be fine and I will call you tomorrow, yeah? Ok, yeah, thanks for your help, love you, bye!” He shuts the door and Harry’s quiet for a moment out in the hall and then Nick hears him sigh._ _

__“All right, Nick. Have fun, all right?” Nick has to smile because the whole day was just so very _Harry_. “I’ll ring you tomorrow.”_ _

__Nick waits until he hears the lift buzz at his floor and then the door slide shut before he wanders into the kitchen and wonders how the hell he’s going to make a stir fry._ _

__*_ _

__The dinner comes out…okay. The chicken is more than likely too well done and the rice is so overcooked it’s kind of mushy, but the sauce Harry showed him how to make is sick and the vegetable recipe from the cookbook was easy enough. Overall Nick is pleased and he leaves everything to simmer as he pours himself a glass of pinot and wanders off to shower and get ready for his date._ _

__It doesn’t take him long and within a half hour Nick’s scrubbed clean and fresh faced and in a pair of nice black trousers and a new grey jumper. He checks the time and realizes his date is a few minutes late and is thankful for it; the last thing he would have wanted would have been to still be in the shower or shaving and have the bloke show up early._ _

__Five minutes later his mobile buzzes and Nick smiles when he sees Harry’s message flash over the screen._ _

___"just checking that you don’t need me to send emergency over to rescue you from your burning flat"_ _ _

__Nick rolls his eyes because _honestly_._ _

___"everything is fine harry. just waiting for my date so I can be amazing"_ _ _

__It takes a few minutes for Harry to respond, but when he does Nick feels his face heat even as he tells himself he’s being ridiculous for it._ _

___"you’re always amazing. xx"_ _ _

__*_ _

__Nick’s date never shows._ _

__At first he thinks he must have gotten the time wrong. Maybe Nick thought he said seven but he really said eight? But then eight passes, and then eight thirty. By the time nine o’clock rolls around Nick’s completely polished off the bottle of wine and he’s feeling fine even if he did get stood up. Fuck him, is kind of what Nick’s feeling. Clearly this bloke isn’t as much of a catch as Pixie led him to believe and Nick is planning on telling her that. He going to tell he right now, actually, and he digs his mobile out of his pocket and turns it on._ _

__Naturally, there’s a text waiting there from Harry._ _

___"hope I’m not being nosy but how is it going?? Xx"_ _ _

__Nick sighs. _"it’s not"_ he texts back before he can think about it. _"he never showed up."__ _

__Harry doesn’t text back right away. Of course he doesn’t. He’s _eighteen_ and a _famous millionaire_ and is more than likely out for the night doing all sorts of things famous millionaire popstars do in their free time. Winning an award or shagging a model or swinging from the ceiling. Nick really has no idea, is the point, and he’s fine with that. Harry is free to do as he pleases._ _

__Which is why, when he gets back a text that says nothing but: _"THAT FUCKING PRICK"_ he has to smile to himself because no matter what he kind of has Harry. Harry is his as much as he’s the rest of the world's and right now that’s the best thing Nick’s ever heard._ _

___"eh, no biggee. Going to eat the food and go to bed early"_ , Nick sends back, but then he leans his head back and closes his eyes for a minute and through the haze of him falling asleep he hears his phone buzzing with text after text but he doesn’t answer._ _

__*_ _

__It’s the pounding on the door that wakes him up._ _

__“Nick!” he hears a voice shout. Nick sits up and rubs his eyes. His head is a bit fuzzy and he’s a little confused on what day it actually is and what’s happening, but then he hears Harry’s voice again, “Nick, open the door,” and it all comes back to him._ _

__Cooking._ _

__The blind date._ _

__Getting stood up._ _

__Telling _Harry_._ _

__Honestly, Nick should have his head examined because clearly he has some kind of mental deficiency. That’s the only thing that would make sense of why he would tell Harry his date stood him up._ _

__“All right, I’m coming,” Nick mumbles as he stands up and makes his way to the front door. He rubs his eyes and shoves his hand through his hair one last time as he unlocks the door to find Harry stood on the other side holding a bottle of wine in one hand and a pastry box in the other._ _

__Nick blinks. “Harry?”_ _

__Harry takes a deep breath and seems to steel himself against something and then he says, “Nick, do you want – I mean. I want to be your date tonight,” he says exhaling his breath in one fast rush._ _

__And, what? Nick blinks again, because, “What?”_ _

__“I brought wine?” Harry says hopefully, holding the bottle up in the air. “And cupcakes?”_ _

__Nick looks at Harry who’s stood in his doorway, his face wide open and hopeful, and all of a sudden things seem to make a lot more sense. How Harry has always been there for Nick, to help him with anything he’s needed. How he thought Nick cooking for a date was stupid but how he helped Nick anyway because that’s just how Harry is._ _

__“You want to be my date,” Nick says thoughtfully. Harry bites his bottom lip and shuffles closer._ _

__“I do,” he says quietly. He’s looking down at the floor and then up at Nick through his lashes. Nick pulls him in by the arm and sets the wine and the cupcakes down on the hall table and wraps his fingers around Harry’s wrists._ _

__“Do you want to be my date now because the bloke didn’t show and you feel bad or something?” Nick asks. “Because I never even met him so I’m hardly broken up about it or anything.”_ _

__Harry shakes his head. “No. I want to be your date because I always wanted to be your date. I don’t want you to have dates if they’re not with me.” He looks up, worried and curious and hopeful all at once. “I mean, if you want.”_ _

__Nick pulls Harry in and leans down so their foreheads are touching. He sees Harry smile and Nick kisses his cheek and the corner of his mouth and when Harry slides his hands over Nick’s waist and pulls him in closer, Nick feels something soft and small burst deep in his chest._ _

__“I want,” Nick says, because he does, and then he kisses Harry to prove it._ _

__*_ _

__They eat dinner that night sat on Nick’s floor in front of the coffee table that’s piled high with plates and cups and bowls. The chicken is more than overdone by now and the rice is more than completely overcooked, but the sauce is amazing and Harry’s feet tangle with Nick’s under the table. It’s quiet and normal and almost like any other night for them, but when Nick leans over to kiss Harry he can taste the wine on Harry’s lips, and feel the smile curve his mouth, and really, it’s the best date Nick’s ever had._ _

__

__-end-_ _


End file.
